Tuesday Tread

-- Testing a great set up for the dunes --
When we last headed for the sand dunes, we knew we wanted some traction royalty, so we called AMS about the Sand King tires. Some sand tires are buffed before paddles are vulcanized on, but the 14-paddle Sand King rear is molded like a normal four-ply tire with a large-volume, high-flotation 30x14 carcass. The Sand King front is a traditional-appearing, high-flotation, high-volume, smooth tire with a solid center rib flanked by two segmented ribs. Both sets of tires were…

-- Testing DOT-rated desert treads --
By the staff of Dirt Wheels
We are stationed in Southern California, which means we have a ton of desert trails to ride. Mud and tight, wooded terrain is a lot more difficult to come by, so we do a lot of testing in rocks and wide-open desert. We test what matches that terrain, like the Maxxis Liberty UTV tire. This well-designed piece of rubber has been out for a while, but we wanted to get some hard miles on a 30-inch set before we wrote down our thoughts.
THE TREAD…

-- By the staff of Dirt Wheels --
We have accused UTV owners of choosing larger tires because they look cool rather than selecting the tire size that will work best with the machine. So here we are, installing STI’s Sand Drifter tires and HD9 Comp Lock Wide wheels that are both taller and wider than stock tires and stock wheels on the RZR XP 1000. In this case, when we were heading to the seemingly endless sandbox, fondly referred to as Glamis, where there is no such thing as too much flotation or too much traction.…

By the staff of Dirt Wheels
There is a perfectly good reason that most sport or sport utility UTVs come with a fairly aggressive tire with large, blocky knobs. UTVs are sold all over North America, and it hardly makes financial sense to equip machines headed for different parts of the country with different tires. Economy-of-scale pricing mandates that companies choose a tire that can do everything pretty well. Pro Armor knows that not everyone lives where the stock tires are most effective. For instance, the Dirt…

Rock and roll, and rolling rocks By the staff of Dirt Wheels
When we first saw the GBC Kanati Mongrel tires in action, we wondered if they were an automotive tire adapted to UTV use. Nope, they are designed for ATVs and UTVs.
When a tire company is building a tire for original equipment, they have a lot of demands to meet. It must offer traction in an extremely wide range of terrain. The tread should clean well in mud yet not be destroyed easily in rocks. The suspension department will want the tire to be as light…

-- Close-to-perfect UTV/4x4 quad sand tires --
Tire test by the staff of Dirt Wheels.
The ITP Dune Star tire breaks new ground for us. Here is a tire that has a sharply narrow focus limited primarily to sand, but could also be effective in snow or mud. Keep it away from hard dirt, but when used in the sand it was designed for, the performance is flawless. The single fault we can find is that it currently fits only 12-inch wheels. End of complaints.
FEATURES
Most sand tires are designed…

--Testing a brave new lineup of wheels and tires --
It’s a dog-eat-dog world when it comes to producing and selling tires and wheels for any platform these days. Getting tires produced is somewhat easy for companies to do, especially with the rise in rubber manufacturing in China, but the hard part is to build them to last and perform. For a new company, this would be a daunting task to try to get it up off the ground and market their products correctly to the UTV and ATV world. Some might say it’s too tough, but…

A great setup for your utility quad By the staff of Dirt Wheels
Arisun Tires and Raceline Wheels are one in the same. Arisun Tires is known for making some gnarly six-ply and eight-ply ATV and UTV tires. Some are specific to certain terrains, while others are awesome all-terrain tires. Raceline Wheels makes wheels for trucks, UTVs and ATVs. Their UTV and ATV wheels are built tough and can be purchased in simulated beadlocks, double beadlocks or standard beadlocks. Two of their products that caught…

There is a genre of tire for every type of terrain, and that is extremely apparent when it comes to shredding sand dunes. Sport ATVs are also a very worthy tool to tackle the steep and flowing mounds of sand, so pairing the two creates a combination of pure fun and enjoyment. AMS designs tires with tread patterns to suit all types of riding, and that includes their Sidewinder rear paddle tires. We tested their rear set of AMS V-blade-style sand tires on our Honda TRX450R.
AMS SIDEWINDER
We have…

UTVs are sold all over North America, and it hardly makes financial sense to equip machines headed for different parts of the country with different tires. Pro Armor knows that not every stock tire is most effective for where each rider may live.
The Hammer uses 20mm tread blocks that are fairly close together, and perhaps more importantly, none of the center tread blocks run sideways. They are largely oriented along the length of the tire. That orientation puts a lot of rubber on the ground, and makes for a very…

-- DIRT WHEELS TIRE TEST --
The front Maxxis Bighorn 3.0 tire is now directional, which helps with turning, while the rear has a bigger tread surface area that helps with traction.
Maxxis has a great relationship with multiple UTV manufacturers. Companies like Kawasaki, Yamaha, Polaris and more use the Maxxis Bighorn 2.0 tires on their stock machines. There is no doubt that the 2.0 tire provides good traction in many different types of terrain, and for years there was no reason to upgrade…

-- DIRT WHEELS TIRE TEST --
Great grip at a great price --
Some say that traditional, solid-axle sport quads are dead and that there is no point in directing product development towards them. We have two problems with that thinking: there are more far more beloved sport ATVs in the garages of off-road enthusiasts than there are UTVs, and modern IRS 4x4 quads are sport quads. AMS knows that truth, and they support our love of quads with tires that grip at costs that are easy on the wallet. We picked up a…